Thursday, March 29, 2007

Hell Ride

This sad case has finally made its way to the coroners court, and it's nice to see a bit of prejudice already creaping in to the Coroners findings. I'm sure all the negative media has nothing to do with this. Just thought I'd pick out some of the quotes from Mr Johnstone that have been reported thus far.

“The pack doesn’t give evidence. Those who run the pack don’t give evidence. They’re not game enough.'’

Nobody runs 'the pack' you idiot, there is no directing mind or will of the group, they are just a group of people who like riding. Trying to paint bunch rides as in some way equivalent to a rioting mob is just ridiculous, and shows a complete lack of understanding of the sport of cycling. and talk about hypocrisy, the coroner has clearly been swayed by the lynch mob like behaviour of the police and motorists giving evidence, and the tabloid media in Melbourne. How many inquests have there been into the 15 or so deaths of cyclists this year in Melbourne- none.

Prejudice: “This group, this bunch, this pack needs to modify its behaviour.'’ Referring to his 18 years on the bench, Mr Johnstone said it was “very rare'’ for him to make comments midway through an inquest.

Trying to make out you aren't actually prejudiced: During his outburst the coroner noted more and more cyclists were to be seen on Victorian roads which, he said, was a “good thing'’.

Isn't it nice to see justice being done- nothing like jumping to conclusions about something you don't really understand based on a jaundiced view of what happened combined with a touch of utter pre-judgement.

And now the papers can say 'look we were right all along, we told you so'.

The other lamentable thing is that the Age ran with a headline that stated that cyclists were travelling at 'excessive speeds' which was apparently 10 kilometres an hour below the legal limit.

This coroner should clearly be removed from the inquest due to bias. The least we can do in the interests of justice is to wait for all the evidence to be presented, and then make a conclusion as to whether the death was wrongful, or an accident however preventable.

Presently the inquest just seems to be a media incited lynching. I have to also question the necessity of running a coroners inquest at this point in time which cannot hear evidence from the accused, who rightfully has declined to give evidence until trial.

'When you wake up to the fact that your paper is Tory, just remember there are two sides to every story'

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well said bro.

jono

1:18 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home